A charity has called for "positive steps" to tackle isolation of the elderly after a woman was found in bed more than two years after she died.

Almost 9,000 elderly people in the North have been issued with personal alarms.

The Northern Ireland Assembly has today passed a hard-hitting budget dealing with billions in cuts from London, but ministers were left divided over the controversial financial plan.

Two of the parties in the North's power-sharing Government are poised to vote against a hard-hitting Budget that follows £4bn in cuts from London.